NAEP - Overview

NAEP Overview

— More Information —

• View FAQs about NAEP.

• For the latest information and publications, visit NAEP Activities.

• For recent findings, visit The Nation's Report Card website.

• For a full description of the NAEP program, practices, and goals, explore An Introduction to NAEP (1123K PDF).

• Read about NAEP policy on inclusion of special-needs students.

• Read about school participation in NAEP and understand why nonpublic (private) school participation is crucial.

• Examine Sample Question Booklets and background questionnaires.

• Explore the NAEP Questions Tool for examples of questions NAEP asks, with actual student responses.

• See recent participation by states and districts; explore state participation history.

• What happens in NAEP during the course of a year? See a summary in The Nation's Report Card: 2007 At a Glance.

• Read about research comparing NAEP and state proficiency standards.

• Read transcripts of online StatChats about NAEP findings.

NAEP: A Common Yardstick
What NAEP Does—and Doesn't—Report
Who Runs NAEP?
NAEP Assessments: Main and Long-Term Trend

NAEP: A Common Yardstick

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Assessments are conducted periodically in mathematics, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history.

Since NAEP assessments are administered uniformly using the same sets of test booklets across the nation, NAEP results serve as a common metric for all states and selected urban districts. The assessment stays essentially the same from year to year, with only carefully documented changes. This permits NAEP to provide a clear picture of student academic progress over time.

There are two NAEP websites: one for program and technical information, and the other for the Nation's Report Card results.

To read about school participation in NAEP; information for parents, educators, and researchers; data tools; technical documentation; the history of NAEP; and other information about the NAEP program, explore this website (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard).
To see the most recent results of assessments including information for the media and frequently-asked questions about the assessments, visit the website specifically for The Nation's Report Card (http://nationsreportcard.gov).

What NAEP Does—and Doesn't—Report

NAEP provides results on subject-matter achievement, instructional experiences, and school environment for populations of students (e.g., all fourth-graders) and groups within those populations (e.g., female students, Hispanic students). NAEP does not provide scores for individual students or schools, although state NAEP can report results by selected large urban districts. NAEP results are based on representative samples of students at grades 4, 8, and 12 for the main assessments, or samples of students at ages 9, 13, or 17 years for the long-term trend assessments. These grades and ages were chosen because they represent critical junctures in academic achievement.

Who Runs NAEP

The Commissioner of Education Statistics, who heads the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education, is responsible by law for carrying out the NAEP project. The National Assessment Governing Board, appointed by the Secretary of Education but independent of the Department, sets policy for NAEP and is responsible for developing the framework and test specifications that serve as the blueprint for the assessments. The Governing Board is a bipartisan group whose members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives, and members of the general public. Congress created the 26-member Governing Board in 1988. The NAEP assessment operations are carried out with assistance from contractors.

NAEP Assessments: Main and Long-Term Trend

Main NAEP is the name often applied to the most frequently reported NAEP assessments. Main NAEP includes assessments in mathematics, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history. These assessments follow the frameworks developed by the National Assessment Governing Board, and use the latest advances in assessment methodology.

National assessments include all nine subjects above, assessed at grades 4, 8, and 12—although not all grades are assessed each time. Four of these subjects (mathematics, reading, science, and writing) are reported also at the state level, usually for grades 4 and 8. For national assessments, students in public and private schools are assessed, but at the state level, assessment is in public schools only.

State assessments began in 1990; results for each participating state may be found using the State Profiles tool. The Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) is a multiyear study of the feasibility of a trial district-level NAEP in selected urban districts that is supported by federal appropriations authorized under the No Child Left Behind Act. The first TUDA took place in conjunction with the 2002 state NAEP reading and writing assessments. TUDA again took place in 2003, 2005, 2007, and is scheduled for 2009.

The long-term trend (LTT) assessments are given at the national level only, and are administered in a manner that is very different from that used for main NAEP assessments. LTT reports results in mathematics and reading that present trend since the 1970s, and are given every four years. The long-term trend assessments differ from the main assessments in several other important ways.

Many other studies are conducted under NAEP. Twelfth-grade data from the main national assessment are used in the High School Transcript Study (HSTS) every four years. Other main NAEP data contribute to the National Indian Education Survey (NIES) and other special studies, In addition, there are other special research reports, and a database of all NAEP reports published by NCES, accessible using the Publications link.